Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio. In
a moment, I'm going to bring you our latest support
slash appreciation Detective program Special. But first I do want
to encourage you if you're enjoying the podcast, to follow
us using your favorite podcast software, and as a reminder
for a listener support and appreciation campaign, you can become
one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as
two dollars per month by going to Patreon dot Great
Detectives dot new Well, it's time for us to bring
you another twice told tale, and we're focusing on a
script by Bob Tauman. Pauman with Gildaud wrote for the
Adventures of Sam Spade and did a lot of radio work,
including working on Voyage of the Scarlet Queen. Now, as usual,
we will take a look at a script he wrote
and then see how it was recycled on another program
down the line. First off from August one of nineteen
forty eight, Here is Sam Spade and the Dry Martini Keeper.
Speaker 2: The Adventures of Sam Spade Detectives brought to you by
Wild Road Cream oil Eratonic, the non alcoholic heratonic that
contains lenoline. Wild Road cream oil again and again. The
choice of men who put good grooming verse, Sam say, detective.
Speaker 3: Agency, Me, sweetheart, how did it go?
Speaker 4: It was the end, Effie, But the end.
Speaker 3: Oh Sam.
Speaker 5: Not another one of those society things.
Speaker 4: Defanswer what you mean by society?
Speaker 5: Well, you know, Sam, cafe society cocktails for two hands
across the table. Make it another little fashion.
Speaker 6: Let's not lose our head, Ivy, nothing but double Martini's
very dry with two olive Sweetheart.
Speaker 5: Too, Holi, Oh Sam, it's not overdoing.
Speaker 6: It was all overdone, sweetheart. That's what cracking. Oh, stay
right where you are. I'll be right down to mix
up my report on the dry Martini caper.
Speaker 4: Get it.
Speaker 2: Nashal Hemns, America's leading detective fiction writer and creator of
Sam's Bay, The Heart Boiled Private Eye, and William Spear,
Radio's outstanding producer director of mystery and crime drama, join
their talents. Make your hair stand on end with the
Adventures Up Sam Spade, presented by the makers of wild
Root Cream oil for the hair. August is always a
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be sure you include a bottle and a handy tube
of wild Root Cream Oil hair tonic. For no matter
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of Sam Spade.
Speaker 6: He look sober and wise? Is it owl? Sober? Is
a judge?
Speaker 5: Oh well, the way you talked on the phone, I
thought you'd drowned. The shamrock kiss, the black Betty splice,
the main brace decorated, the mahogany made a Dutch bargain
or in the word going to give a chinaman a
music classic, Effie.
Speaker 6: I wish you'd spend more time with Harper's Bizarre while
I'm gone. Unless were the thesaurus of slang, I didn't
know I could say that, are you sober well?
Speaker 5: I've been riding the tune drinking adam bail and if
you don't believe it's just ask me to walk.
Speaker 6: Okay, here's he tozzy, arms of kimball, eyes glazed.
Speaker 7: Yes.
Speaker 6: Then the tip of the forefinger to the tip of
the nose.
Speaker 7: Sham.
Speaker 5: It makes me dizzy.
Speaker 6: Is he Gillaspie exactly? And you are not sewn up, shagged, shellac, chickered, stuccoed, tap,
shackled stiff o or real crazy?
Speaker 8: Well you know this good?
Speaker 6: Not try this one? Yes, pragu sitting fasture Lynn's cruciform
what sheeese style? That's it? Now placed the notebook just
a little higher. Good. Now, apply the tip of the
pencil at the top of the fool's cap and proceed.
Visit Date August fist nineteen forty eight two Missus Netta Martini,
one thousand Marina Boulevard, San Francisco, from Samuel Spade license
umb onenty seventy five nine six. Subject Dear Netta. The
first I know of the caper was day before yesterday morning,
when I saw your husband's picture in the paper. It
was one of those lovingly retouched executive type photographs of
a man in his late forties or early fifties. Graying
at the temples and wearing an embalmbed man of distinction look.
The story was headlined, corporation had waylaid by a mysterious
assailant chauffeur, foils would be kidnappers and offices of Martini
Trading Company. The item under it wasn't as thrilling as
the headline, sat as if he'd been knocked down for
his wallet and the attempt at kidnapping had been dreamed
up by a bored city news reporter. I tossed it
in the waste basket along with my more mail, and
went back to the Police Gazette. On page three, the
phone range you need garage Harry speaking miss speed one moment.
Who's calling Gordon Martini? Not Gordon Martini? The corporation head
waylaid by a mysterious assailant chairman.
Speaker 4: Of the board, and there's nothing but serious about it?
Speaker 6: Then what are you doing on this phone?
Speaker 4: I can't talk on the phone.
Speaker 6: Where are you in a hospital?
Speaker 4: I left that.
Speaker 9: Pest house this morning. I'm at my residence, one house
in Marina Boula Bah. It will take you exactly twenty
minutes by cab. You will meet me in front of
the building and we'll have our conference in my car
on the route to the office.
Speaker 6: Where's your office downtown Post Street? Oh, why don't I
meet you there.
Speaker 4: I'm a busy man.
Speaker 9: I have a full calendar. I'm already lated due to
all that hospital red tape. But I can fit you
into my schedule if you're hurry, and.
Speaker 4: I'll look alive.
Speaker 10: Man.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a little early in the morning, but I'm
trying on good.
Speaker 4: What will you want for a retainer?
Speaker 6: I'll let you know if I decide to take the job.
Speaker 4: I left twenty minutes. I'll expect you.
Speaker 6: I should have looked more alive. It took me two
minutes to get out of the straight, one minute the
flying down a cab at eighteen minutes to reach your
address letter, a total of twenty one minutes. As my
taxi drew up to the curb in front of the
canopied entrance to the corner apartment house one thousand Marina,
I saw your husband pacing indignantly up and down in
front of the entrance, pausing only the glare at the
outsized chronometer on his left wrist. His gray Hamburg was
perched to top an outsized turbin of gauze bandage that
decorated his head.
Speaker 9: Ah, I used faith exactly one minute and twenty two seconds.
Speaker 11: Late.
Speaker 9: Hours are made of minutes, Minutes are made of seconds.
And killing this seemingly negligible interval of time, you have
wounded an hour.
Speaker 6: Oh I have Well, I'm sorry. The traffic's pretty heavy
out here this hour of the morning.
Speaker 9: You know you should have started a minute in twenty
two seconds earlier.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry. There was a bore on the telephone, kept
talking about how valuable his time was.
Speaker 9: Well, don't apologize, only waste more time. Here's your check,
one hundred dollars. My cars just around the corner. I
paid that show for a large salary. We mustn't keep
him waiting. In the meantime, you may as well start
earning your fee.
Speaker 6: I've been earning it for the past twenty two minutes
and twenty two seconds.
Speaker 9: Lait I suspected as much you'd have a car.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you mean one man drives all that.
Speaker 9: I see him, that rascally chaffeur of mind sleep in
the backseat, all right, come out of there, you hey
watching me?
Speaker 6: I was behind him in a little bit of right.
The shock of the rapid fire thirty caliber slugs lifted
him off his feet and knocked him against me. I
went down under his three hundred pounds of dead weight
by the time I rolled him off at me and
got up. The gunman and jumped out of the limousine
and into a grace of van that was double parking
alongside in the welder of traffic on the boulevard. I
didn't dare risk drawing a shot after him, but I
did get the first three numbers of the license plate
before it buried itself in a heavy stream of am commuters.
That's when the air changed from exhaust fumes to something
out of a Persian garden. I turned and looked for
the first time into your nile green eyes letter and
saw you twisting a handkerchief in your pale hands. I
might have loved beside the shallowmar but I'm in a boulevard.
They look like hysterics.
Speaker 12: That ahead, Who did it?
Speaker 13: I'm sawing? Don't lie to me. Why don't they come
with the ambulance. Why are all those people standing here
on they're scaring it?
Speaker 6: Make them go stop it? Well there, that's better, come
out over here. Who are you his wife.
Speaker 13: Yes, and it was all my fault. This is the end.
Speaker 14: I called Ernie out the window and asked him to
come upstairs. I wanted him to return some landery that
sent the wrong color piece.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, who's Ernie.
Speaker 14: He's our chauffeur. I was looking for the exchange slip
when we heard the shots.
Speaker 3: Is he dead this time?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I go to pieces of course, Gordon.
Speaker 13: He had so many enemies.
Speaker 12: He didn't drink.
Speaker 13: Well, you know, people dropped us like flies.
Speaker 6: I certainly dropped your husband.
Speaker 7: Are you a policeman?
Speaker 6: No, what I'll do until the real thing comes along,
which is right now. If I were you, lady, I
had got back upstairs and relaxed. I got the US
center up.
Speaker 13: Yes, I suppose you're right. Poor god. And he looks
so natural stretched out on a pavement. Yeah, I keep
thinking he'll get up and stagger on it elevator. He
didn't drink at all.
Speaker 14: Well, go on with you, all right, I'm going, Oh, Ernie,
where did you go.
Speaker 6: Down at the garage. I had a car driving pull
mister Martine. It's all my fault.
Speaker 13: No, Ernie, it's mine. If I only hadn't mislaid that
ex James Slick.
Speaker 14: Know when I called you out the window to come
and get that package?
Speaker 6: Oh oh that when only got here? Who's the witness me?
Oh Spain lost another client? Huh not quiet. I hadn't
carshed the check yet. I only got him anyway.
Speaker 12: All right, Clara space and there.
Speaker 8: Let him throw that stretcher step over here.
Speaker 6: Out of the crowd. Sam. I want to get that statement. Yeah, okay,
Gerry take it down. Got a pencil, yeah, and I
want it back. That's having. This guy is Gordon Martini,
headed up a local firm, the Martini Trading Company. Last
night he was working later at the office. Got boinged
owed me this morning. I didn't know why. I thought
maybe he wanted a bodyguard. Anyway you needed one. Gunman
was crouched in the backseat of the limousine, shove the
car being out when Martini opened the door. I mean,
doesn't get a good look at him. You can see
why the way it's closed in those side windows. Corn
car and stop drooling. You can't afford one. You're getting
all this? What about the getaway Martini fell on top
of me. I saw the getaway car on the back
of his head. Car was a gray sedan. The back
of his head was a standard make too. Only got
the first three digits of license plate five D nine.
Anything else, Yeah, give me back my pencil. The homicide
boys want some help. They know my fee. Mister Speed,
This is Martini. Why aren't you on Ernie upstairs getting
your alibis shaped up?
Speaker 13: Please? I can't face the questions just yet.
Speaker 14: Would it be legal if I just avoided them till
I can collect myself.
Speaker 6: I don't know about legal, but it might be smart.
Speaker 13: Where can we talk?
Speaker 6: What do you suggest?
Speaker 14: Well, there's a little cocktail lounge up on Lombard we're
earning I'll. I mean, well, it's it's just around the corn.
Speaker 6: Very handy. Let's go.
Speaker 13: Against my mother's advice.
Speaker 14: I should have listened, but well that's why I married
mister Martini.
Speaker 6: Well that braces up to nineteen forty three, and it's
suddenly a quarter or twelve.
Speaker 13: You're just like him, always holding a stopwatch over my head.
Speaker 6: Always.
Speaker 12: Well, he drank, you know, you told me that.
Speaker 14: But it's much more important than you think. He often
fell down and bumped his head.
Speaker 6: I mean that mysterious assailun that way laid him last
night in his office was a bubble Martini.
Speaker 14: Two pictures full before dinner, so learn he had to
carry him up to his office.
Speaker 6: Oh what did he go up there for?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 14: We had an appoint when the vice president of the firm,
mister Nesbit. Something had come up and he wanted Gordon
to sign some papers.
Speaker 13: I don't know what it wasn't.
Speaker 14: The first time I waited outside the car after Ernie
had taken him upstairs.
Speaker 13: He came back to the car and we talked.
Speaker 6: Oh, Ernie has alibis upstairs, downstairs, long around the house.
Speaker 14: Well, then when the others came out and Gordon didn't,
Ernie went.
Speaker 6: Upstairs to see why mister Lesbeth and who else?
Speaker 14: Mary Callahan secretary, No, she's an attorney.
Speaker 13: And if you think everything was legal between those two.
Speaker 7: Well, but after all, who am I to called the
kettle black?
Speaker 6: Oh? What are you trying to tell me? That she
got him drunk so they can make him sign some papers,
That he got himself drunk so he couldn't write his name,
or that he just got drunk and fell.
Speaker 13: Down Between you and me, I think she pushed him
down a flight of stairs. In his condition, he never remembered.
Speaker 6: Why are you putting my finger on the callahan Dame?
Speaker 13: So what would you think she was the last one
out of the building.
Speaker 6: Why didn't you want to tell our list of the police.
Speaker 14: Well, I didn't want to talk about his drinking. Things
were bad enough already. That would have been the end.
Speaker 6: Oh, let's it's got an answers. Any what do you
want me to do for you?
Speaker 13: Prove that she did it Nernie didn't.
Speaker 6: I'll let you take care of Bernie.
Speaker 14: Oh No, I don't want to alibi him unless I
have to. He might get the wrong idea.
Speaker 6: You mean I've got the wrong idea.
Speaker 13: He might think it meant I still care for him,
and I don't. I can't stand him anymore the way
he choose those tooth bits. And besides, if his alibi
is too good, I.
Speaker 14: Might have trouble about that car being in the backseat
of my car.
Speaker 6: Pardon me, It sounded as if you said you might
have trouble about a car being in the back city
of your car.
Speaker 13: That's what I said.
Speaker 6: Where is your car in the garage?
Speaker 13: But somebody had it out this morning. They scraped the
fender coming back in, and they ran in the wall.
They must have been in an awful hurry.
Speaker 6: Tell me this car here is it wouldn't be a
grace of that? Yes, license number?
Speaker 14: Oh wait a minute, it's on my keyring up here
five nine?
Speaker 6: N enough. Why didn't you tell me this before?
Speaker 14: Well, I couldn't get up the nerve after I heard
you tell that policeman the gun that killed Gordon was
a car being, and the grace Ofdan and all that.
Speaker 13: Well, at the.
Speaker 6: End, I hoped you were right, but I didn't think
so when I went to look at the grace of
that and your garage, and I knew you were wrong,
dead wrong. It was the getaway car, all right, and
the car being, as you know, it's proven later to
be the one that killed your husband. But Ernie had
turned into a very poor suspect. Indeed, he was hugging
the carpet between the front and rear seats and nudged him.
He didn't move. He'd been shot at close arrange and
Gordon Martini, and the killer had used only one slug.
It was planted in the base of his brain, which
made him not only a very poor suspect, but a
very dead one. The makers of Wild Road Cream oil
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it's grand for training children's hair. And now back to
the dry Martini Caper to night's adventure with Sam.
Speaker 15: Spade Latini Trading Company.
Speaker 5: That afternoon, I'm sorry, if Nebod is in conference, I'll
see that he gets your message well.
Speaker 7: What can I do for you?
Speaker 6: I would like to see miss Callahan.
Speaker 5: Miss Callahan is in conference with Miss.
Speaker 6: Good I would like to see them both, But I.
Speaker 7: Have allders not to.
Speaker 6: Did you do not have to?
Speaker 12: I will just a minute.
Speaker 13: You can't go break like that, and I'll tell you
something else.
Speaker 12: You won't ever get away with it. Why everyone in
this town knows about your underworld connection?
Speaker 3: Why you daughtering old Wood?
Speaker 16: When I get through with you, if you don't go
to the gas chamber for Gordon Martini's murder, you wish you.
Speaker 12: If I go to the gas chamber, it'll be for
killing you not going.
Speaker 5: Oh why didn't I have witnesses here.
Speaker 6: Miss Callahan to hear that you weren't talking loud enough?
I didn't hear a thing.
Speaker 12: Well, come on in here and I'll tell you a
thing or two. Close that door.
Speaker 6: Now, sit down, Franks, I listen better on my feet.
Speaker 12: Oh so you're the detective Netta Martini employed?
Speaker 8: Eh? What's she paying you?
Speaker 6: That'll depend on how much I have to do for.
Speaker 7: I'll tell you how much you will have to do for.
You'll have to make a case against me, and that's
not going to be easy.
Speaker 6: Why do you think she's had to get you.
Speaker 12: Why Indeed, for years, this mothy and mouthpiece, this paw
boiled posture, has been victimizing poor Garden, taking advantage of
his weakness for drawn. Now that she's liquidated him, she
appears with fifty five percent of the common stock. Bode
even enough? Why you ward you an old fool? I
said he bothered his death and threw an attachment on
those stocks on ethical but perfectly legal.
Speaker 7: But you're not even a prophecy.
Speaker 3: You're nothing but a bumbling all in bed.
Speaker 14: Now he's gonna call in the auditors over those books
of yours, the dean of double entry, mister Spain, work work?
Speaker 6: Will you save this for the court room? Saying, now
you've convinced me you're both crooking, I'll say that you
both go up for something. That's a promise.
Speaker 12: Mister Spade, I gave you credit for better sense. Do
you know that this maduci of the magistrate's court, this
poppy of a hall of justice, tricked him into changing
the beneficiary of his insurance the very night she pushed
him down the stair, And.
Speaker 5: You were all in favor of it, when you thought
you had the controlling interest in.
Speaker 7: The company answered that missus Spain.
Speaker 13: He can't answer that.
Speaker 6: Good good, I'm glad one of you is tap right.
They lost for words. Now I only want to know
one thing, and I want a straight answer, and of
either one of your starts off on another speech, I'm
going to push you into the narest cloak room and
lock you in together.
Speaker 12: Why you would he did?
Speaker 6: Try me? Sweetheart?
Speaker 12: What do you want to know about this Amazon ambulance chaser?
This till me the crapicqu.
Speaker 6: I watch it?
Speaker 7: Well? What do you want to know.
Speaker 6: About Martini's insurance policy? Now you say he changed the beneficiary,
please answer in ten words or less.
Speaker 11: Who was the.
Speaker 6: Beneficiary and who is the beneficiary?
Speaker 12: Now I'll have to answer that question in two parts.
Speaker 7: The beneficiary was his wife.
Speaker 5: He changed it to the Martini Trading Company, a corporation
of the state of California.
Speaker 6: Thank you and goodbye, Mary Callahan, And that meta took
the heat off of you over the time being, which
made things tough for me, because Callahan and Nesbitt were
so horrible. I never wanted to see the again, even
to testify against them in court. I was sure of
one thing. None of you would pulled the trigger of
that car. Being there had been a hired killer behind it,
and the way he operated taking crazy chances in broad
daylight and a crowded street told me an important thing
about it. That night, I made the rounds of the
joints and a plant called the bing room. I found
a bouncer who had tossed out a customer that'd run
up a bill and tried to play it for a
thousand dollar check. He sent me to the Atlas Hotel.
The Atlas Hotel is off a third street, down to
the railroad yards. Not even a plea bank, but please
sickened and died a long time ago. They couldn't take it,
and fil the look of the guests sprawled out in
the mission furniture of the lobby, they wouldn't be able
to much longer. A half dead room clerk came back
to the land of the living long enough to mutter
a room number and wave me feebly toward a flight
of prummy stairs. Yeah what do you want, you hack heartman?
Speaker 12: Hey, you got anything for me?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I got those for you. Get back in the room.
I'll tell you all about it. Yeah, Well, come on in,
drop the ship.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I'll cop it.
Speaker 8: I'll fix you.
Speaker 12: I'll cut your cord, cut you up.
Speaker 6: I'm glad you did that. You make it easy for me,
and I'll get over it.
Speaker 13: There.
Speaker 6: Leave me alone.
Speaker 11: Leave me alone.
Speaker 6: I'm not feeling you can feel a lot worse. Who
hires you to put the burn on? Martini?
Speaker 12: You don't get nothing out of me?
Speaker 6: Who gave you that check?
Speaker 12: Leave me alone?
Speaker 6: I got all night hack and I feel better than
you do. What you doing? That check? I'll shake it
if your teeth come out with it?
Speaker 12: Come on, all right, all right, stub it, stub it.
I don't feel so good.
Speaker 6: Okay, where pocket god reach, I'll get it. There was
a company check, which is what i'd expected for one
thousand dollars drawn on the golden gate Prust and Loan,
but I wasn't expecting to find the signature on the
bottom line. He was signed in a bold, firm hand,
Gordon Martini. There was the penman on this.
Speaker 12: He wrote it himself right in front of me.
Speaker 6: What was it supposed to be for?
Speaker 10: Hey?
Speaker 12: He wanted I should knock off his brother.
Speaker 6: You get mixed up. He's dead, Ay, that's what I mean.
Gordon Martini's dead.
Speaker 12: The papers got it wrong. That was his brother, his
twin brother, and another guy that chauffeur kept hanging around
the garage so I couldn't get out. I had to
burn him too.
Speaker 6: You know what you're saying, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm
making sense.
Speaker 12: I'll get out of here.
Speaker 11: I'm getting steamed.
Speaker 6: I'll let it worry. Yeah. I got a nice, cool
place all picked out for you. After I turned hack
over to the cops, I did what checking I could
on my own at that time of night. As nearly
as I could learn, Gordon Martini could never have had
a brother, twin or otherwise. He was a first child,
his mother died in childbirth, and his father died one
month later. So I went back to the offices of
the Martini Trading Company, glass keyed my way in and
made a quick risk of it. There. I learned the
signature on the check was indeed Gordon's, but that he
had closed out his account at that bank the day
he wrote it. I thought about that on the way
out to your apartment.
Speaker 11: Sam.
Speaker 13: I've been calling and calling trying to reach you up
in so worried at the end this time you might
be right.
Speaker 6: Fix me a drink well, there's.
Speaker 14: Nothing in the house but those prepared martiniz Gordon used
to drink?
Speaker 7: Is that all right?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 6: But fixing me one anyway? Never mind the ice. It's
not morning yet, but I hate myself already.
Speaker 13: Why don't you just relax and let me get it
for you?
Speaker 6: I relax, you get the martinis?
Speaker 8: What happened?
Speaker 15: What do you take of Maricallen?
Speaker 5: Isn't she's cute?
Speaker 6: You're all cute?
Speaker 13: An I put ice in? Anyway?
Speaker 6: It's nasty without nasty anyway.
Speaker 13: I hope it doesn't make you fall down the way?
Did poor Gordon?
Speaker 6: Thanks?
Speaker 13: What's the matter to dry?
Speaker 6: You? Open this bottle? Price?
Speaker 8: Why?
Speaker 12: Yes?
Speaker 13: What's the matter?
Speaker 6: Where are they the rest of the bottles? Oh? Yeah,
more of the same? Is this all your husband have
a drink?
Speaker 13: Yes, Gallons, it's a special brand. He even took it
with him the bars and people's houses. He'd sit and
drink them right out of the bottle like a little child.
Then he'd be falling down drunk aporus. And that's how
we lost so many friends. They dropped us like like
like flies.
Speaker 6: It was the end.
Speaker 13: Who're your phoning?
Speaker 6: Maxi? Sam Spain?
Speaker 4: Sammy?
Speaker 6: What can I do on you on Martini? MAXI, Yeah,
they got around to the autompsey end. Yeah, they rushed
them through, got the report handy right in front of me.
Speaker 4: Funny thing, sham doc said they should have saved themselves
the trouble. He'd have been dead in a week or
two without no help.
Speaker 6: What from brain tumor a leaguean that says any alcohol
in him?
Speaker 4: None from drinking, Sammy?
Speaker 6: What about the headhoones? Accidental fall due to periodic fanning
spells part of his condition? Thanks, Maxie?
Speaker 7: What is it?
Speaker 13: Sam? With martiniz poison?
Speaker 6: No, sweetheart, martinis were colored water.
Speaker 13: They couldn't. What made him get so drunk?
Speaker 6: He didn't.
Speaker 13: He was sick, Sam who killed it?
Speaker 6: Killed himself? He couldn't do He hired a gunman to
do it. He planned his own murder.
Speaker 13: Well, why didn't he even noticed something? He could have
ruined us all.
Speaker 6: Come here, a sweet heart, put your little hat on
Uncle Sam's shoulder. That's, sir, just what he wanted you
to do. He wanted to ruin you. He let Mary
Callahan flace him out of his interest in the company.
He let Nesba juggle the books. He lets you go
your way with Ernie. He let all three of you
fix yourselves up with his nice set of motives from
as a jury get asked for it couldn't. The real
joker was the check he used to pay off the
man he hired to kill him. It bounced. It also approved.
He planned his own murder, but he still has his
revenge because the insurance it would have kept the corporation
from going broke won't be paid off on account of
a self liquidating cause.
Speaker 13: Oh, Sam, darling, what's going to become of us?
Speaker 11: All?
Speaker 6: Well, Callahan and Naslitt will probably sue each other to death.
You might have to go to work and earn a living.
Speaker 13: Well, I have five hundred dollars. I might invest it
in something you already have.
Speaker 6: Here's my bill.
Speaker 13: But Sam, you didn't help me. What this is the end?
Speaker 6: No it isn't, sweetheart. This is the beginning. Came here period,
end of the end.
Speaker 5: Well ask me you helped her?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: F Well, it just goes to show you show what
man's ingratitude. Man, What did mister Martini have against you?
Speaker 10: Why?
Speaker 6: Nothing, SWEETHEARTI just needed a smart operator like well, no,
Johnny Madero was under.
Speaker 5: Have you cashed that check? Mister Martini gave you well,
uh chet, Sam. Any bartender would know better than to
take a check from a man who drinks that much.
Speaker 6: You haven't been paying attention. He didn't drink. He didn't.
I was able to establish that later on.
Speaker 5: He believe ying Sam. For all anybody knew, he was
a hopeless bronk. He was so.
Speaker 13: Wonderful and trusting.
Speaker 5: But I do wish that you'd understand this. He was
a hopeless bronk.
Speaker 6: For the last time, Effie, he didn't really drink.
Speaker 5: I'll just take this up, Sam, Will you call the bank.
Speaker 6: I'll do that.
Speaker 2: A final reminder, friends, whether you're going on a long
vacation trip or just a weekend to the beach, be
sure you've got a bottle and tube of Wild Root
Cream oil tucked away in your suitcase. Do this and
you'll find it's easy and quick to spruce up again
after stepping out of the water or off the tennis court.
For no matter where or when you use it, Wild
Root cream oil grooms your hair neatly and naturally relieves dryness,
removes loose dandrub so at home and away from home.
Help yourself to handsome hair with Wild root cream oil.
And next time you have a chance, ask your barber
for a professional application of wild root cream oil hair tonic.
Again and again. The choice of men who put good
grooming first.
Speaker 7: I'm great.
Speaker 13: The plice of the paper in carbons.
Speaker 6: You made carbon copies of that unimportant report like that,
It bounds will the estat doesn't settled yet.
Speaker 13: You're so wonderful and trusting, Effie.
Speaker 6: I am not wonderful and trusting. I am a hard
boiled private eye.
Speaker 5: I know, just a pity there's no money.
Speaker 6: In it, and I'm also too trusted.
Speaker 5: Have you ever thought of ceramics?
Speaker 13: Of what ceramics?
Speaker 5: It takes virtually no capital. All you need is a
small furnace and some clay. And if you don't have
any talent you can you can just make ashtrays.
Speaker 6: Thanks, I already have one.
Speaker 13: You can pop them on a wheel, and you.
Speaker 6: Can pot your hat on and a wheel one out
of here, and also take your furnace and play.
Speaker 3: I love you when you're so gay and carefree.
Speaker 6: I am not gay and carefree.
Speaker 13: I am a hard boiled riv.
Speaker 6: Good night and assume me for you have back. Salvy sweetheart.
Speaker 2: The Adventures of Sam Spade I Shall Hammett's Famous Private
Detective are produced and directed by William Spear. Sam Spade
is played by Howard Dove.
Speaker 6: Loreen Tuttle is Effie.
Speaker 2: The Adventures of Sam Spade are written for radio by
Bob Tolman and Guildoud, with musical direction by Lud Gluskins.
Gildoud directed tonight's broadcast in William Spear's absence. Join us
again next Sunday for another adventure with Sam Spade. Brought
to you by Wild Root crem Oil again and again
the choice of men who put good grooming first. This
is Dick Joy reminding you to.
Speaker 17: Get Wild Root Cream Oil. Char It keeps your hair
and trim. You see, it's an alcoholic Charlie. It's made
Miss Lanoline. You've gotta get Wild Root Cream Oil, Charlie. Yeah,
start using it today. You'll find that you will have
a tough time Charny keeping all the gals away. Hi,
you Baldy, get Wild Road right away.
Speaker 2: This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Speaker 11: Welcome back.
Speaker 1: As always, this episode was just a lot of fun U.
The biggest reason is Joseph Kern and his character's very
colorful insults of Miss Callahan. This might be the hardest
I'd laughed at any Sam Spade episode. You also get
a cameo by Jack Webb in this, and they actually
referenced Johnny Madero in the same episode NA a coincidence.
It also features a group of people who are so
absolutely terrible they really back Sam Spade. I also think
the solution is pretty clever, as suicide, particularly by hipman,
is kind of rare in radio detective shows. Well, now
we're going to hear how the basic idea for this
story is transported into a very different series. The last
radio series that Bob Tolman did before spending the last
decade of his career in the industry writing for television
and film was the series mister Ia Moto. The character
was based on the one created by John P. Markuand
in the thirties. However, this take on mister Moto was
an American of Japanese descent who was born in San Francisco,
but he is still an international secret agent. Episodes tended
to deal with the serious international issues of the day,
as he was very engaged in the Cold War and
with what was really viewed as a related battle against
the spread of narcotics with two key ideas, first that
the proceeds from the sales of illegal narcotics often went
to support hostile foreign regimes and organizations, and secondly, that
the spread of illegal drug use would undermine the morality
and mental health of America's youth, which was actually viewed
as a goal for the drug smuggling. Motto is a
much more straight laced character than Sam Spade in a
very different series. How is Tolman going to adapt the story?
Let's find out. In the case of the Dry Martie
from October twentieth, nineteen fifty.
Speaker 8: One, a wise person once said that vengeance is a
dish that should be eaten cold. In the case of
the Dry Martini, the Avenger drank his vengeance from a
cocktail glass. It began as the routine investigation of a
tip on a West Coast smuggling operation. Although I arrived
in San Francisco after business hours, I found mister Jerome Pearson,
the head of the Monsoon Trading Company, still at work
in his office.
Speaker 16: Well, mister Motto, this is indeed a pleasure. I wanted
to meet you for a long time.
Speaker 8: Thank you, mister Pearson.
Speaker 16: Ah, Yes, yeah, no, no, no, take the leather chairts
more comfortable you.
Speaker 8: I will not take up much of your time, mister Pierson.
Speaker 16: Well, it's just on the point of knocking off of
the day. Have a cattail.
Speaker 8: No, no, thank you.
Speaker 16: Nothing like a dry martini to step you back after
a long, hard day's work.
Speaker 11: Sure you won't to join me.
Speaker 8: I'm quite sure, mister Pearson. Thank you.
Speaker 16: Now, some people think that a martini should be stirred.
I say, if you don't take a cartail, it's never
really cold.
Speaker 8: I am told there are two schools of thought on.
Speaker 16: That cold right, perfect, Well, then, mister Mono, what's on
your mind?
Speaker 8: I was sent here to San Francisco to investigate an
anonymous letter about me, not specifically your firm, the Monsoon
Trading Company was mentioned by name. In what connection, sir,
in connection with a smuggling operation? Were able to trace
the writer of this letter? Not yet, sir.
Speaker 16: Hell is any smuggling going on this verm anything about
a mister Moto?
Speaker 8: Would it be possible for such a thing to occur
without your knowledge?
Speaker 16: I don't know how. All our shipments are checked through
customs in the ordinary manner. All our records invoices, bill
of lading and so on are double checked by the
customs people and by us. What do you deal in
for the most part, Oh, textiles, strawmatting, that sort of
thing we we import chiefly from India and may and
laya yes, pardon me, I'm dividend.
Speaker 8: What shipping firms do you deal with?
Speaker 16: Well, we generally wait until we have a full cargo
and charter a ship. If you'd like to look over
our records, our treasure, mister Harper will be only too
glad to show them to you.
Speaker 8: Oh thank you, mister Pearson. But when would that be convenient?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 16: Say, first thing tomorrow morning, excellent, Please be on time.
Time's money, you know, by the way, Moto, my chauffeur's
parked downstairs. If you'd like him to drive you anywhere,
I pay him a large salary and you might as
well be earning it.
Speaker 8: Oh, thank you, But my hotel is own a few
blocks away.
Speaker 16: Oh, I was just going to mix another batch of martiniere.
Speaker 11: You are enjoying me.
Speaker 8: You are so very very kind, mister Pearson, But I
am afraid I must refuse.
Speaker 16: Well, Hey, that that drink really got to me. Good night,
mister Morows pleasure smonors to make your queen.
Speaker 8: Thank you, mister Pearson, and good night. Oh and I
closed the door. Mister Pearson was happily preparing another shaker
full of dry Martini. As I emerged from the building,
I noted a large limousine of foreign manufacture standing in
front of a NOE parking sign. A uniform chauffeur was
leaning against it. You are you addressing me young men?
Speaker 10: Yeah, you come from the Monsoon officers.
Speaker 8: That is correct, you are mister Pearson chauffeur.
Speaker 10: Yeah, what what condition did you leave?
Speaker 6: The man?
Speaker 8: A condition?
Speaker 10: How many more? Teenis?
Speaker 8: He was preparing a second shaker when I let him.
Speaker 6: Oh, oh, I.
Speaker 10: Better get ready look for him out of there.
Speaker 8: Before I had time to ponder on the behavior of
mister Pearson's chauffeur and his abrupt departure into the building,
a second car, a taxicab, drew up behind the limousine,
and two more worried looking people emerged from it. A plump,
heavy set man carrying a briefcase and a thin, sharp
faced woman also carrying a briefcase.
Speaker 11: Excuse me, sir, did you see your chauffeur in this
car a moment ago.
Speaker 8: Why, Yes, he just went into the building. Oh, I
hope we're not too late. If you are on your
way to see mister Pearson, I believe you will find
him in his office.
Speaker 11: What condition did you leave him in?
Speaker 8: Everyone seems very much concerned about mister Pearson's condition.
Speaker 11: Well, I've got a pay roll for him to sign.
I wan't catch him while he can still write.
Speaker 8: Oh you are mister Harper. Yes, I am for you,
mister Moto, mister I A Moto.
Speaker 7: I'm married Donahu, Miss Modo. I'm the attorney for this cooperation.
I want you to know that anything he said to
you while under the influence of martinis will not hold
up for five minutes in any court of law.
Speaker 8: And thank you, Miss Donne. You I will remember that.
Speaker 11: You will have to excuse us now, mister Moto, come along, Mary.
Speaker 18: All shut up.
Speaker 8: They disappeared rapidly into the building, and I walked on
back to my hotel. When I rose the following morning
and read the morning paper, I saw a story headlined
Corporation head waylaid by mysterious assailant chauffeur foils would be
kidnappers at offices of Monsoon Trading Company. Before I could
read the text, my cliphone rang mister Moto speaking, I
must see you. Where are you at? Pleasants at the
person in the hospital.
Speaker 19: I left that pest house this morning. I'm at my
residence one thousand Marina Boulevard. He'll take you exactly twenty
minutes of my cab. You'll meet me in front of
the building now, and we'll have our conference in my
can route to the office.
Speaker 8: I will meet you there in twenty minutes.
Speaker 18: Twenty minutes. Then I'll expect you. Time is money, you know.
Speaker 8: As my taxi drew up to the curb in front
of the Canopian entrance, I saw mister Pearson, facing indignantly
up and down before the building. His great Hamburg hat
was perched atop an outsized turban of gauze bandage.
Speaker 16: A moto earlier exactly one minute and twenty two seconds slate,
But now don't apologize, only waste more time. Come along, Yes,
cars just around the corner. Hey, that's over a large salary.
Mustn't keephim waiting, Uh huh, I suspect it as much
do you drive a carmes from ote?
Speaker 8: I see him and see who mister pis asleep from
the back.
Speaker 16: Seaton watch out.
Speaker 8: I was behind the Pierson and slightly to the right.
The shock of the rapid fire thirty caliber bullets lifted
him off his feet and knocked him against me. Before
I could regain my balance, the gunman had jumped out
of the limousine and into a graced vand that was
double parked alongside. It was soon lost in the welfare
of crassic on the boulevard, but I did succeed in
getting the first three numbers of the license plate. At
that moment, a fragments of perfume tempered the exhaust fumes
from the teeming street, and I turned to face a
very very attractive, very very distract young woman.
Speaker 3: Who didn't you time?
Speaker 8: Don't lie to get yourself?
Speaker 3: Where's the ambulance?
Speaker 8: Please?
Speaker 3: Where are all those people standing around staring at him?
Speaker 13: Make them go away?
Speaker 8: I can't get it, madam. I ask you to stop
this at once, I said, stop it. Oh, that is
very much better now then?
Speaker 11: Who are you?
Speaker 3: Is his wife?
Speaker 17: It was all my fault?
Speaker 11: Oh.
Speaker 3: I called Ernie out the window and asked him to
come upstairs. I wanted him return to Lagreie. This sends
the wrong color.
Speaker 8: Peach, who is Ernie our chauffeur.
Speaker 3: I was looking for the sales check when we heard
the shot.
Speaker 7: Oh is Jerome really dead?
Speaker 8: This card quite quite dead, missus Pearson. And may I
say that your grief is very, very touching. Poor Jerome.
Speaker 3: He looked so natal stretched out there on the pavement.
I keep thinking he'll get up and stagger on into
the elevator.
Speaker 7: He didn't drink at all.
Speaker 8: Well, why don't you go upstairs and relax? Missus Pearson?
Speaker 3: All right, I'm gone.
Speaker 10: Oh oh never, you are right?
Speaker 3: Anywhere?
Speaker 7: Did you go?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 10: Done with the girl? I heard a car drive in,
poor mister Pearson.
Speaker 6: So my fault?
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, it's mine if I only haven't mislaid
that sales check when I called you out the window
to come and here?
Speaker 16: Oh all that?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 18: All right?
Speaker 11: What have we got here?
Speaker 6: Who's the witness?
Speaker 8: I was with him when it happened, Officer name Moto?
Speaker 19: Mister I A all right, all right, clearer space there,
come on, come on, let us through that, stretch over
that or step over here out of the crowd.
Speaker 11: Mister Moto.
Speaker 6: I want to get your statement.
Speaker 11: I just want to say boys, pardon me, that is.
Speaker 8: Quite all right? Are you ready for that statement?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 11: Yeah, you got a pencil?
Speaker 6: Thanks?
Speaker 11: Okay, okay, let's have it.
Speaker 8: This man is Jerome Pearson, a chairman of the board
of an importing firm called the Monsoon Treating you have that?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 8: Last night he was working later in his office and
was knocked out and robbed. He telephoned me this morning.
He did not say what was on his mind, but
he seemed quite agitated. The gunman was crouched in the
back seat of the limousine, and the muzzle of a
carbine emerged when mister Pearson opened the door.
Speaker 11: I see what did it look like?
Speaker 8: I did not see him distinctly. If you will look
at the design of the car, you will see why
the backs and sides are almost completely enclosed.
Speaker 6: Ah what about the getaway.
Speaker 8: I saw the getaway car and the back of the
killer's head. The car was a great two door sedan.
I saw only the first three digits of the license
plate five D nine.
Speaker 11: Have there anything else? Yes?
Speaker 8: I may I have my pencil back? Please? Very very
funny ha ha, mister.
Speaker 3: Motough, what did that policeman say to you?
Speaker 8: Very little missus Berson, but I suggest that you and
that chauffeur get together on those alibis of yours.
Speaker 3: I don't know where Ernie is. Please, mister Moto, I
can't say so questions just here. I'm afraid you would
it be legal if I just avoided them till I
can collect myself.
Speaker 8: I do not know about the legality of the matter,
Missus Pearson, but it would most certainly be wide.
Speaker 3: Oh where can we talk, miss Motel?
Speaker 8: Have you any suggestions?
Speaker 3: A little little cocktail lounge up on Lambard. Ernie and I.
It's just around the corner.
Speaker 8: Very very convenient. I suggest we go there, Missus Pearson.
Speaker 3: It's a dollar and it was all against my mother's
a guy. I should have listened, but that's why I
married mister Piers.
Speaker 8: Yes, very very interesting. That brings us up to nineteen
hundred and forty three and it is only a quarter
to twelve.
Speaker 3: You're just like him, always holding a top watch.
Speaker 8: Over my head always, missus person. Well right, you know, yes,
I believe you mentioned that, but.
Speaker 3: It's much more important than you think. He often fell
down and bumped his head.
Speaker 8: Are you suggesting that you're her late husband's mysterious assailant
was a double martini.
Speaker 3: Too picturesful before dinner. Ernie often had to carry him
up to his office.
Speaker 8: Do you know why he was working late last night,
Missus Pison.
Speaker 3: He had an appointment with the vice president of the
firm and mister Harper. Are something had come up and
he wanted Jerome to sign some papers. I don't know
what it wasn't the first time I waited outside in
the car.
Speaker 8: You were in the car when Ernie spoke to me.
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, And then he came back to the car
and we talked.
Speaker 8: Ernie appears to have alibis upstairs, downstairs and all around you,
Missus Bibson.
Speaker 3: Well, then when the others came out and Jerome didn't,
Ernie went upstairs to see.
Speaker 8: Why the others, Oh, you mean mister Harper and miss Stunny.
Speaker 3: Yes, she's the attorney for the company.
Speaker 8: I know that.
Speaker 3: But if you think everything was legal between those two, well,
after all, who am I to call the kettle black?
Speaker 8: Missus Pierson, what are you trying to tell me?
Speaker 3: Between you and me, mister Moto, I think that Donahue
woman knocked him down a flight of stairs. In his condition,
he'd never remember.
Speaker 8: Why are you so anxious to incriminate this dun Hue?
Speaker 3: But what would you say? She was the last one out.
Speaker 8: Of the building. Why did you not tell all this
to the police when they investigated the attack on your
husband last night?
Speaker 3: I didn't want to talk about his drinking. Things were
bad enough already. That would just have been the end.
Speaker 8: I see. And what do you want me to do
for you, Missus Bisson?
Speaker 3: Prove that Mary Donahue did it and Ernie didn't.
Speaker 8: I think I can rely on you to take care
of Ernie.
Speaker 3: Oh no, No, I don't want an alibi. And unless
I have to, he might get the wrong idea, wrong idea,
he might think advanta. I still care for him, and
I don't. Oh, I just can't stand him anymore. The
way he choose on those toothpicks is just the end.
And besides, if his alibi is too good, I might
have trouble about that carbine I found in the backseat
of my God.
Speaker 8: Yes, but Missus Pearson, Missus Pierson, did you say you
found a carbine in the back seat of your car?
Speaker 3: Yes, and for all I know, it may be the
gun that killed my husband.
Speaker 8: Where was your car the time your husband was killed.
Speaker 3: In the garage in the basement of the building where
our apartment is.
Speaker 8: That is where Ernie appeared from just after the accident.
Speaker 3: He didn't make any secret of it. Remember he said
he heard a noise and went.
Speaker 8: You did not allow him to say very much. Tell
me this car of yours? Is it a great two Doorsidans, that's.
Speaker 3: The whole point. And the car the murderer escaped.
Speaker 8: It was a grade two Doorsidan. What is the license
number of your car, missus Pierson.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, it's on my key ring here five D.
Speaker 8: That is quite sufficient. Missus Peers. Why did you not
tell me this before?
Speaker 3: I couldn't get up the nerve, mister Moto, after I
heard you tell a policeman the gun that killed Jerome
was a carbine, and the graycedan and all that.
Speaker 8: It's the end. I agree, Missus Pearson. It might very
well be the end for Ernie.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't care if it is the way he's
always wandering off the job.
Speaker 14: I mean, it is just the end.
Speaker 8: I sincerely hoped that she was right, but I did
not think so. And when I went to examine the
graceed Dan in the garage, I knew it was far
from the end of the matter. It was the getaway code,
but Ernie had turned into a very, very poor suspect.
He was crouched on the carpet between the front and
rear seats. He had been shot at closer range than
Jerome Pierson, and the killer had used only one bullet
in the base of his brain. I decided my next
call would be on mister Harper.
Speaker 3: Man Soon Trading Company. Good afternoon, I'm sorry, mister Harper's
in conference. Yes, I'll see that he gets your message.
Speaker 7: What can I do for you, sir?
Speaker 8: I would like to see miss Donne you please, Miss.
Speaker 3: Donnehue is in conference with mister Harper.
Speaker 8: That's splendid. I wish to see them books. I have
ordered not to disturb, thank you, but that is quite
quite unnecessary. I will do so myself.
Speaker 3: But there's a gentleman waiting ahead of you, sir.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the idea shoving the splenet.
I'd push you in ahead of me. Huh. I got
personal connections here, mister, see me and the chairman of
the board were I got connections. See, I'm getting very
nervous with the sinus toe, you follow me.
Speaker 11: I gotta see Hopper.
Speaker 10: I gotta see Horp, right, I.
Speaker 8: Will that you Tell mister Harper that you are here.
Speaker 10: Mister tell him, tell him push on Martin, Push on Martin. Yes,
tell him, I ain't taking no run around. Tell him
I got out of contacts only all listen the reason
I kind of. I gotta have a fix right now.
I settle for half only only No Robbert checks lay
owe me, they owe me.
Speaker 8: I will be most happy to deliver you they think.
Please just relax, you do.
Speaker 10: Tell the chairman on the board you'll tell them.
Speaker 11: He looks like I'm not here.
Speaker 8: I left struct mister Harper, my business with you and
miss Donnehue at the moment must take precedence over your
business with each other.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm glad you're here. Mister Moto. You know that
this bezzling old fools actually had the nerve.
Speaker 8: To threaten excuse me, miss done you. I presume you
are referring to mister Hopper.
Speaker 7: Who else but the dean of Double Entry.
Speaker 11: That's a lie?
Speaker 7: How look, why does he keep stalling when I asked
him to see his books? Ask him that, mister Moto,
But I'm the attorney for the corporation and I have
to make a tax return.
Speaker 11: Well, you won't need the books for that. The Monsoon
Company is Brooke.
Speaker 7: Oh did Jerome peers and ask for explanations? Is that
why you killed him?
Speaker 11: Mission to her, mister Moto. This is the hag who
just informed me that she now owns fifty five percent
of the common stock of this corporation?
Speaker 8: Is that true?
Speaker 10: Miss donn you?
Speaker 7: Certainly it's true. I bought up Jerome's debts and threw
an attachment on his docks. Perfectly legal, but not very ethical,
was it? When you met him? He wasn't competent to
run the firm dry Martini's one after the other.
Speaker 11: They came in very handy less night just before you
pushed him down the stage.
Speaker 7: Just a minute, I think you'd better be specific and
you make an accusation like that, mister Harper, gladly you.
Speaker 11: Tricked your own into changing the beneficiary of his insurance
from whom to whom.
Speaker 7: The beneficiary was that muddle headed wife of Disney changed
it to the Monsoon Trading Company, a corporation of the
State of California, which.
Speaker 8: I gather is now mostly yourself, Miss Donnel.
Speaker 7: You're writing the wrong grief.
Speaker 8: Mister Motto, huh.
Speaker 7: You can't try a corporation for a murder.
Speaker 8: A personal responsibility can be fit.
Speaker 7: Not as darkholder. And that's all I am.
Speaker 8: I believe you have a point there. On the other hand,
mister Harper as treasurer and first vice president. All right,
mister Loto, what do you want? I want to see
those canceled checks. Gladly, mister Moto, just step into the
next office.
Speaker 6: I was so.
Speaker 8: Surprised at he's some willingness to cooperate two, But when
I had finished examining the cancer checks, I was even
more surprised. The Monsoon Company's payroll contained more checks for
salesmen than the total net profit on legitimate imports, which
was considerable. The most frequently recurring payee of these checks
was a person named Jacob Martin. I recalled the very
nervous gentleman in a reception room who gave his name
as Pusher Martin.
Speaker 11: Well, Moto, are you satisfied?
Speaker 8: Yes, thank you, mister Harper.
Speaker 7: Wait a minute, what's your game?
Speaker 10: Moto?
Speaker 7: How many child can see that those figures don't add upright?
Speaker 8: I am not interested in your business difficulties, miss done you.
I am not even interested in whom killed mister Pearson.
I am only interested in the motive behind his death.
Speaker 11: Well, she did it because she cheated her way to
the top of the firm, only to find that nothing
could save the business but your home's life.
Speaker 7: Inse now at.
Speaker 8: I came here to investigate a tip on dope smuggling
through your import business. Wha yesterday evening, mister Pearson seemed
to have nothing to tell me. Last night, someone apparently
attempted his life. This morning on the telephone, he said
he had something important to tell me. He died before
he could tell it. I think I know now what
he wanted to tell me. Who was that that mister Harper,
through juggling the books, was able to carry on a
smuggling operation without mister Pearson's knowledge. Recently, mister Harper appears
to have been caught short and you took advantage of
the fact, missed one you that was Pearson's fat. He
withdrew a terrific amount of cash the day before he
was killed.
Speaker 11: No explanation.
Speaker 7: I'll explain plenty when I drag you into court. You
can count on me for a witness, mister Modo.
Speaker 8: My suspects were beguinea to cancel each other out, But
of one thing, I was certain the actual shootings had
been done by a hired killer, and the fact that
he operated in broad daylight on a crowded street taking
such desperate chances indicated that he was either insane or
a drug at it. I suspected the latter. As I
left Harper's office, I observed Pusher Martin had decided not
to wait, but I soon located him in a dinger
establishment called the Atlas Hotel.
Speaker 10: What do you want?
Speaker 8: I want to talk to you, mister Pusher Martin?
Speaker 10: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, come on, come on,
crrent mee for me.
Speaker 8: Okay, okay? Was the stuff that Do not be so impatient.
Speaker 10: I don't feel so good. I tell you that that
monkey is let's breaking my back.
Speaker 8: You can still feel worse.
Speaker 11: What do you want? What do you want?
Speaker 10: I got money, I got a check for a.
Speaker 8: Grand will not suffice. I need information? You got nothing
from me? Who gave you that thousand dollars check? Martin Flamel.
Speaker 6: Six.
Speaker 8: I have plenty of time, Martin, and I feel very
much better than you do.
Speaker 11: Will you find that croaker for me.
Speaker 10: I put them on the send for a jolly b faith.
Speaker 8: I will do what I can for you, but you
will have to help me. Who gave you that thousand
dollars check?
Speaker 18: I can't stand it no more.
Speaker 11: Speak at my back.
Speaker 8: It will get worse Martin. Okay, okay, okay, my shirt.
Do not exert yourself. I will get it.
Speaker 10: This little sponge on the cot I'm so wet, I'm
so wet. You see that the signature that the chairman
of the board. Yeah, yeah, chairman of the board.
Speaker 8: Who forged this signature? Martin?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 10: He wrote himself. He wrote himself, right, might make in
fun of me?
Speaker 8: What was it supposed to be in payment for? He
wanted I should knock up his brother? Then you made
a mistake, didn't you. Huh?
Speaker 10: He's donning me exactly for the papers.
Speaker 11: The papers.
Speaker 10: They got it wrong. They got it wrong. That was
his brother, his twin brother.
Speaker 4: That other guy, that shouf, he.
Speaker 10: Kept hanging around the garage.
Speaker 11: I had to burn him to the get out.
Speaker 8: Do you know what you're thing?
Speaker 10: Yeah? Yeah, I don't feel so good, so I know
I'm making sense.
Speaker 11: Oh, I got to sweat something.
Speaker 8: Do not discuss yourself, Martin, you will be in a
very nice, cool place, very shot. After I had turned
push On Martin over to the police, I investigated his
story as thoroughly as I could at that late hour.
Apparently it was quite impossible that mister Pearson could have
had a brother, twin or otherwise. He was a first child.
His mother died in child earth, and his father died
one month later. Unfortunately, I was not finished with Missus Pearson.
Speaker 3: Mister Moto, I've been calling and calling trying to reach you.
I've been so worried.
Speaker 8: It's just the end, This the time, Missus Parson, you
may be right.
Speaker 3: Can I pix you a drink? There's nothing in the
house but those prepared martinis Jerome used to drink. Is
that all right?
Speaker 8: I have never tasted prepared martinis, but I should be
interested in sampling one of those, Missus Pearson.
Speaker 3: I could use one myself. What did you think of
Mary Donna Hugh?
Speaker 8: Is it cheesy and the most interesting? Lady? That I
find you all most interesting?
Speaker 3: Jerome used to drink some cold, but I put in
even more ice than Nay, thank you, it doesn't make
you fall down the way it did poor Jerome.
Speaker 8: Yes, indeed, well, cheers, cheers.
Speaker 3: What's the matter to drive for you?
Speaker 8: Did you open a fresh bottle when you made these?
Speaker 3: Yes? What's the matter?
Speaker 8: Where is that bottle, missus?
Speaker 3: Piece right there by the ice bucket?
Speaker 8: Ah? Is this all your husband ever drank?
Speaker 3: Yes, gallons of it. It's a special brand. There's a
whole case underneath.
Speaker 8: I'd like to examine that.
Speaker 7: Help yourself.
Speaker 8: The same and this one too, Missus Bison. You are
quite quite sure that this is all your husband's ever drank?
Speaker 3: Why he even took it with him to bars and
in people's home I see he'd sit and drink them
right out of the bottle like a little child. Is
then he be falling down drunks. Of course that's how
we lost so many friends.
Speaker 8: They dropped us just like like fly. I believe you
said before.
Speaker 3: It was the end.
Speaker 8: Excuse me? Who are your phony ptience? Missus Pison? And
I think he would be pretty.
Speaker 18: Nothing homicide mister speaking.
Speaker 8: This is mister motto. Mister y has the autopsy been
performed on Jerome Pearson yet? Do you have the reporter attend?
Speaker 19: You're right here in front of me. A funny thing, mister, motto.
The doctor said they could have saved themselves in trouble.
Speaker 8: Huh.
Speaker 18: He would have been dead in a week or two
without assistance.
Speaker 8: He was ill. What brain? Was there any alcohol present
in the body?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 18: No, none from drinking?
Speaker 8: Is there a no tician on the head?
Speaker 18: Wounds now accidental fall through the periodic fainting condition?
Speaker 8: Thank you, mister Gedy, Thank you so very very much.
Speaker 3: What is it, mister mool with the martinis pullet?
Speaker 8: No, no, missus Pearson, quite the country The martiniz your
husband drank contain nothing but colored water?
Speaker 3: Then what made him get so drunk?
Speaker 8: He did not fall down from brunklmness, missus Pearson, your
husband was a very, very sick man who killed him?
He killed himself.
Speaker 3: Oh, but he couldn't have you.
Speaker 8: He employed a gunman to do it. But it was suicide.
Speaker 3: And why didn't he leave a notice? Something? He could
have ruined us all?
Speaker 8: I imagine that is precisely what he wanted to do.
You all thought that he was a hopeless drunk and
took advantage of him. He allowed Mary Donne to free
him out of his interest in the company. Let mister
Harper juggle his book to cover a smuggling operation he
was engaged in, and let you go your way with
Ernie in shure, Missus Pearson, your husband allowed all three
of you to furnish ourselves with as convincing a set
of motives as a jury could ask for.
Speaker 3: But Jerome wasn't like that. He must have intended it
is a.
Speaker 8: Joke in your case. That may very well be, but
he would not have involved me in his plan just
for a joke. I think he sincerely wanted to bring
miss Donahue and mister Harper to justice. He must have
wanted his suicide to be found out sooner or later
in order to prevent them from collecting the insurance that
would have kept the cooperation from going bankrupt.
Speaker 3: Oh really, Jerome was the end? Oh what's going to
become of us all?
Speaker 8: If Miss Donnehue and mister Harper do not go to prison,
they will probably sue each other to death. You might
even be forced to earn your own living, missus Pearson.
Speaker 3: Oh well, my mother always used to say that hell
hath no fury like a dry martini.
Speaker 8: But this you are so very very right, missus Pearson.
It is the end. I did not learn until later.
How thoroughly mister Pearson had planned his charade of the
dry martinis. The final joke was the check with which
he paid the man he hired to kill him. It
not only furnished proof that he was a suicide, it
also bounced, thus depriving the assassin of his ill earned feet.
Mister pusher Martin should have heeded the advice of the
Japanese sage who said, where profit is, loss is hidden nearby. Well,
and now, maybe autumn fragrance of an October evening lie
gently upon you. Only did eyes, and the cares of
the day dripped away, as silently as the fallen petals
of a flower upon the serene waters of a stream
curving between two willow trees, at a place where two
lovers meet. Good Night, Welcome Back.
Speaker 1: Obviously a less funny episode, but I think Toman did
a good job making the idea from Sam's fade fit.
The one thing I thought was clever was tying drug
smuggling into the murder case. Toman already had the drug
angle kind of just there in nineteen forty eight, but
here he made it relevant to the plot. I do
think the attempts to Motorize Spades lines are a bit
mixed in this episode. He does seem much more sardonic
than Moto typically was in the rest of the radio
series in the circulating episodes, But then again, these characters
are pretty much as bad as the characters in the
Sam Spade story, so I couldn't blame Moto for being
a bit frustrated. The biggest law on the rewrite was
when Pearson offered Moto a glass of his mix Martini. Now,
given that this was water and it was key to
his plan to fake being drunk, if Moto had accepted,
it'd be a huge problem and Moto would know right
away that something was up. And now he may have
been betting on Moto not accepting the offered drink, but
still it seems like a rather pointless risk. Other than that,
it was a pretty good recycling job that almost seamlessly
brought a Sam Spade episode to life as an episode
of Mister Moto. Well, now it is time to thank
our Patreon supporter of the day, and I'm want to
go ahead and think Bettina. Bettina's been one of our
Patreon supporters since May twenty twenty one, currently supporting the
podcast at the detective sergeant level of seven dollars and
fourteen cents or more per month. Thanks so much for
your support, Betina, and that will actually do it for today.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
favorite podcast software. We will be back next Sunday with
our final listener support slash Appreciation special, but join us
back here tomorrow for the adventures of the falcon Wear.
Speaker 20: After the Sergeant and I broke down the door, we
found Anny. Yes, I still don't understand why he did
it now, it's pretty obvious he was working for the
Greek and he knew it was the chair once they
nabbed him. It's all my fault. If I'd done a
better job, he wouldn't have turned out this way. Who's
to say, I am. I want your help so as
I can make.
Speaker 6: It up to him.
Speaker 2: Well, isn't it a little late?
Speaker 6: Well better late than never. I want you to find
the man they call the Greek and the Greek.
Speaker 20: Yes, I want to know who and what he is.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so do the police. They've been trying to identify
him for years.
Speaker 20: Danny knew Well, he certainly isn't going to spill it
now there must be some way.
Speaker 8: No, forget it.
Speaker 20: I told you they know the police have been trying
to run him down for years. Well maybe they're making
the same mistakes over and over again. That should make
it easier for you. Well, I wouldn't know where to start.
I don't care about the where. The important thing is when,
and here's five hundred dollars to do it now.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detective Start yet,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.